No new anime or manga to speak of this time, since i'm not really buying anything and we're at the tail end of the spring anime season.

Books

• Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers
  • Of the Wayfarers series this one ended up being my least favorite, but i still had a good time. I think the exclusive focus on human characters and an established community misses some of the magic of the first two books. This is the "connection with one's community" book.
• The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
  • On the other hand, this one has no human characters for the most part, and that's rad. Still not my fav of the series, but extremely cute and fun. This is the "connections between strangers" book of the series.
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune
  • I think this was a little too twee, a little too "Good Omens fanfic" for me, but it was cute and i still wanted the guys to kiss, so it did that for me.
• A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
  • God, what a goodass novella. Becky Chambers can do no wrong. A book about the idea of purpose in life, among other things, this really hit me hard given my current situation.
• The Archive Undying by Emma Mieko Candon
  • This is the second time i've tried reading this..... it's not bad, and in theory it should be totally my shit, being a gay mecha story, but something about it just hasn't clicked.
• Hild by Nicola Griffith
  • in the middle of reading this, having a good time. historical fiction set in 7th century britain about Hild of Whitby. lot of historical terminology i have to keep looking up, but that's not a bad thing.

Games

• Community POM
  • what a cute game! i wish it did a little more with some of its systems - it felt like building up the town wasn't super important, and bringing the poms with you was usually just a matter of having the right traversal powers, but it was just such a fun time the whole way through. big recommend.
• Pokemon Crystal
  • revisited this for the first time since i initially played it as a kid. it's a little rough compared to some of the later entries, but i just have such strong nostalgia for it, and so many good designs come from this generation.
• Hamtaro: Ham-Hams Unite
  • i love Ham Ham Heartbreak, so i was excited to play the earlier game in the series, and it's a real wonderful time. just extremely cute, lots of really great animations everywhere. i got stuck a few times, but overall it was a delight.
• Cassette Beasts
  • of all the Pokemon-likes i've played, i think Cassette Beasts feels the most unique while still carrying some of that Pokemon magic. lot of great designs and characters in this. i do think sometimes the open world nature makes it feel like i'm not really progressing as much, and some of the 'boss' fights felt a little frustrating. haven't finished this yet, and have gotten kind of burned out on it for a bit. will revisit later.
• Ranger X
  • hadn't played this before, but god this is such a cool-ass old Genesis game. action game with a mech + vehicle, also just a sort of insane tech demo with a lot of wild parallaxing, 3D, etc. managed to finish a playthrough of this, it's actually not that difficult!
• Shinobi III
  • having watched many playthroughs of this, i finally played through it for myself. it's good! the music is incredible! fuck those bat ninjas!
• Zone of the Enders
  • what a coolass game, that unfortunately feels like the first third of a bigger game. the most "playing a mecha anime" game i've played, it wears some pretty strong Gundam influence in its plot.

Record of a Spaceborn Few didn't grab me the same way that Long Way or A Closed and Common Orbit did. i found it interesting, i appreciated the characters, but i didn't really get a like.... emotional connection to it. i think the themes of generational community connection didn't really like... resonate with me? but that's purely because of my personal feelings and not the fault of the book.

hey i lost my job this month, which sucked, so i've sought comfort in some old and new favs.

Manga

• Young Ladies Don't Play Fighting Games by Eri Ejima
  • okay real cute motherfuckers. i sat down to read this thinking there'd be NO young ladies playing fighting games... but guess what happens not even one volume in!!! for real though this is cute and fun, i'm sure if i were more of a fighting games player i'd get even more out of it, but the main girls are cute and i like how toxic they are.

Anime

• Jellyfish Can't Swim In The Night
  • neat girls band stuff so far, real strong animation and sense of character. these girls are all like, career burnouts at age 14 or whatever, which is wild, but it's interesting.
• Tonari no Youkai-san
  • extremely cute and largely feelgood story about people and yokai living side by side, going about their daily lives. i've heard and can definitely tell that the anime extremely cuts out a lot of the quieter moments and conversations in favor of moving the plot along, which is a shame, but it's still just such a joy to watch. big recommend.

Books

• The Long Way To A Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
  • damn, this book blew me away. a sort of Star Trek-y episodic adventure through space, with a big focus on finding family. it's very cute and cool and gay.
• A Closed And Common Orbit by Becky Chambers
  • the sequel to Long Way, this one is way less about space adventures and way more about two people and their journeys towards 'selfhood'. a lot of very literalized "figuring out how to be a person" stuff that resonated hard with me. i cried hard, Sidra's my blorbo.
• Spear by Nicola Griffith
  • very cool, queer Arthurian story about a girl that wants to become a knight. she kicks tremendous ass and fucks hard. extremely good, a short read, very beautiful prose.
• Exordia by Seth Dickinson
  • buckwild alien invasion/first contact story with a lot of focus on ethics and morality. aliens are real, souls exist, heaven and hell are real places and you can fuck around with them through science. it's neat. but man.... listen i love everything about Anna and Ssrin and their whole deal, it's incredibly good and hot and wonderful. but the book focuses a huge amount of its time on other stuff that is just.... not nearly as good.

Live Action

• Game Changer
  • I've been watching this, this is just a check-in to say, the show is still wonderful, the best improv/game show since Whose Line. A game show where the core premise and mechanics are different every single episode. Very funny, often surreal.
• Smartypants
  • Dropout's new show, there's only one ep so far but it was extremely good. people give short powerpoints on literally anything. good stuff.

Games

• Nioh 2
  • I've started this game up a dozen times and still not actually finished it. it's still very fun though, and I have a good time trying out different builds. the loot system is obnoxious as hell though.
• Mega Man Legends
  • revisited my childhood favorite game to sooth my layoff depression, and guess what: it's still the best game i've ever played, no notes, A++, 10/10.
• Mega Man Legends 2
  • the sequel, on the other hand..... i think there's a lot of good parts here, but the format it puts them in, and where it chooses to spend its time, make it a way less appealing overall package than the first game. i think i came away liking this less than i did when i initially played it as a kid.
• Rockman Dash 2 Episode 1
  • newly translated! a demo of sorts to MML2 that had previously never been available in English. it's short, and some of it is literally just tutorial, but what's there is good, and weirdly seems to show a better game than MML2 actually became. there are areas in this that feel more realized and alive than the sort of sterile hallways they'd become in MML2 proper..... weird experience, but i'm glad to have played it.
• The Misadventures of Tron Bonne
  • this is a game i never fully played through until now - first because i could never find a copy, then because it didn't emulate well. i'm so glad i got around to it though, this rules. Tron Bonne as a character permanently rewired my brain when i first played Legends, and she gets to shine here so hard. i do think some of the mission types are a little less interesting, and i do wish there was more story content with like Denise, but overall the game is just such a damn charming time.
• Mark of the Ninja
  • this was also a replay, i last played this like 10 years ago. a really good, tight stealth action game. i think there's some overall questionable stuff in terms of cultural appropriation given the nature of the game and its development, but otherwise a pretty good time.

reading Becky Chambers' A Closed And Common Orbit and just fucking weeping the whole time